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Amsterdam was a good trip for me. In a way it is sort of a therapy for me. While there I thought of my nanny whom I have lost contact with her for 24 years. My nanny whom we called her "Ah Rua Jie Jie" came from Malaysia. She was hired by my mum to be a domestic servant and most importantly to take care of me and my twin brother when we were very little. However when we were 8 years old, my nanny decided to work in a factory and after one phone call a few months later to ask about our well being... I have not heard from her :(

I really missed her and I wondered how is she, is she happily married, have children and is she doing just fine?

Thus after my trip from Amsterdam, I am quite resolve to search for her. I hope to do so next year. In the meantime I went through some of my childhood photos and managed to find photos of her :)

Just want to share the photos to whoever that visits my blog and just a long shot... do you know her :)

Uppsala with Mr Cat

Been in London for a few days and then traveled to Uppsala, Sweden to meet up with my friend who is working in a research institute.

Quite a nice quiet place... heard it is an university town. Within half a day, my friend showed me all the attractions of Uppsala. Most memorable was the walk down a cemetery where an ex UN secretary general is buried. Gee cannot remember his name but heard he died in a plane clash and then we saw a cute furry fat cat.

Another strong impression I have of the place is the serenity and quietness of the town... what a good retreat to just walk around the town and garden and enjoy the scenery :)

German Girl Shrine

Wow... amazing, I guessed I last visited Pulau Ubin 4 months back and so many pleasant little surprises when I went there.

I am particularly amazed at the current state of the German Girl Shrine(you can notice from the link that shows the state of the temple a few years back); a shrine that housed the remains of a German Girl who lived in Pulau Ubin many many years back. People flock to this temple to pray for fortune like buying toto etc and gee I guessed that quite a number of them got their prayers answered. Apparently someone has renovated the temple very recently (the shrine got a flesh coat of paint and newly expanded zinc roof and tiling on the floor) and from what I heard from two villagers living there, that someone has strike lottery and won a few hundred thousands of dollars and naturally he wanted to repay the "German Girl Deity"

I am somehow quite attached to the German Girl Shrine. Since I stumbled upon this temple about 8 years back, I have seen it transformed from an abandoned rundown place to now what it is today; there is now a caretaker and there are a constant stream of worshipers flocking to the temple praying for luck.

Do not wish to boast :P but it makes me think that how one or two persons' efforts can really create something great to happen (a bit like the chaos theory or the butterfly effect)... just recounting...

When I saw this temple 8 years back... it was really in bad shape. There are holes on the roof and termites etc and apparently there was this old caretaker who passed away. I also got to know that the temple was standing on state land without a permit and it might be demolished. My friend (Michael Kam) and I did a documentary about our search for this German Girl's identity and then I brought a reporter from Straits Times and she did quite a big write up on the newspaper. In the midst of it, Both me and my friend went to appeal to Land Transport Authority and even Singapore Tourism Board to ask whether the temple can be preserve...

Gradually over a span of four years perhaps from the publicity generated from the Straits Times article and also by word of mouth, more people came to know about this temple and even more newspaper articles came up and the authorities eventually issued a license (TOL)
to someone who will take care of the temple (btw there are two caretakers, one of them holds the license and effectively is the owner and the other one who comes almost everyday to clean up the temple... anyway I don't really like the former cause I think he got some ulterior motive... will talk about this perhaps next time). Soon enough some worshipers got lucky and they repayed the deity by renovating the temple etc. In fact the Straits Times article even inspired a playwright to staged a play entitled "Moving Gods" and perhaps that the German Girl Deity bestowed her little blessing on me, I was fortunate to get the playwright's permission to do a tele-movie adaption of "Moving Gods" and screened at Arts Central channel. Though I must say that while filming, my production crew and myself encountered some spooky unexplained incidents there... to be continued :)

Room 3, Bed 3132

Everyone who knew Toh Hai Leong; he is now staying in a nursing home for the dementia at Pasir Ris Walk.

Quite glad and relief that he finally has a place who can really take care of his physical needs. For Chew and myself, we can perhaps now focus on our other commitments without feeling something at the back of our neck.

For myself, I hope not to sound too pragmatic, but "charity and help" in a way has a limit and lines have to be drawn. We definitely know for sure we can't be a caregiver permanently... if Hai Leong does not have the will to take care of himself, and his immediate family cannot be there for him, only an institution has the means and resources to do it.

Much as we dislike the idea of him being send to a dementia home and even other nursing home (all the patients we seen are really old), what other better options aside from IMH :(

However we will not forget him, he might be there for a long haul and he needs company. Thus we will visit him, bring him out etc for the emotional support and as friends, we can perhaps only do that much.

So for those who knew Hai Leong, you can now visit him anytime between 10am to 8pm.

Lastly, despite I know it is their "job"; a salute to those nurses and doctors and social workers who are there for him.

a video of Toh Hai Leong's first day in the nursing home

After F and the Festival

Something trivial. Toh Hai Leong needs no introduction among the Singapore film community. In brief, Hai Leong is a very unique and eccentric character; he used to be a film critic, security guard, "karang guni" man, "kopitiam" cleaner, SAF and SPH librarian, and now he is suffering from diabetes . Recently there was a documentary "F" directed by Chew Tze Chuan about Hai Leong battling his illnesses.

Because he is such a strange but yet strangely attractive individual, I like to hang out with him (recently I explained to someone why I prefer to spend time with him VS say some of my old school mates is that Hai Leong's conversation is never dry. He is witty, amusing and bizarre. My mind constantly gets whacked left right centre)

For the past three years ever since he "directed" and acted in what I should say my most favorite Singapore movie "Zombie Dog"
I have recorded close to 20hrs of tapes of him at various moments of his life. Since I have no idea if and when I will do a documentary on him, I am contented just to share some of my own video collections... starting with his recent discharge from the hospital.

Toh Hai Leong discharged from the hospital

May Day Message

This is my first post. I am a filmmaker who like to do personal documentaries. For the longest of time, I believed that internet can be a new medium or another extension in the area of documentary filmmaking; some years back (2001) before blogging was the in-thing in Singapore, I went to Germany Hannover for a film fest and I tied up with an internet website company to put up a website that can allows people to participate in the documentary process... (I did a documentary about a temple in Pulau Ubin that worshipped a german girl and intend to investigate whether it was a myth. However it was an experiment that did not reap much success. With regards to blogging... i procrastinated for quite a while cause I do not want the unnecessary attention and label as some lame exhibitionist.

However I got inspired by some filmmaker's blog; namely Martyn See's blog who can effectively used his blog to reach out to a wide group of audiences (aside from the film festival circuit) and also gives an in-depth knowledge of the filmmaker's documentary and journey. Lastly I concluded that maybe the website which Martyn See created helped saves his arse a bit from the authorities :P

After attending this year Singapore International Film Festival, I am kind of fire up to do something useful besides playing xbox and playing with my little niece :)

Since I talked about documentaries (this blog will not be entirely about filmmaking, there are more important trivial issues to talk about - very soon) ; I will like to share with you two short videos I have shot. It is about the May Day Walk by Dr Chee and Chee Siok Chin.

shot on 29 April 2007

shot on 1 May 2007

enjoy :)